Daily Readings July 30, 2012

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Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 401

Reading 1 Jer 13:1-11

The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth;
wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water.

God said to Jeremiah, go buy yourself a loincloth.  That is, some briefs.  Underwear which covers the crotch area.

He says, wear them and but don't wash them.

I bought the loincloth, as the LORD commanded, and put it on.

Jeremiah did as the Lord said.

A second time the word of the LORD came to me thus:
Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing,
and go now to the Parath;
there hide it in a cleft of the rock.

God spoke to Jeremiah again.  He said, take those briefs you are wearing and place them under a rock in a place called "the Parath".  Some say it is the same as the river called the "Euphrates".

Obedient to the LORD's command, I went to the Parath
and buried the loincloth.

Jeremiah did as God commanded.

After a long interval, the LORD said to me:
Go now to the Parath and fetch the loincloth
which I told you to hide there.

Then, after a long time, God said to Jeremiah, "Go fettch those briefs."

Again I went to the Parath, sought out and took the loincloth
from the place where I had hid it.
But it was rotted, good for nothing!

So Jeremiah did.  But the briefs were rotted and good for nothing.

Then the message came to me from the LORD:
Thus says the LORD:

Then God spoke to Jeremiah again.

So also I will allow the pride of Judah to rot,
the great pride of Jerusalem.

This is how the Jews will rot.  Just like this set of briefs.

This wicked people who refuse to obey my words,
who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts,
and follow strange gods to serve and adore them,

Because they are wicked and do not obey my words and walk in stubbornness of heart and follow strange gods to serve and adore them.

shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing.

Therefore, they shall be like this set of briefs.

For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man's loins,
so had I made the whole house of Israel
and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD;

Because, God said, as close as that set of briefs clung to a man's crotch, that is how close I made Israel cling to me.

God is here, merely speaking of the proximity of the garment to the human skin.  If you consider the clothing which men wore in those days, it was a sort of robe.  If you imagine Jesus in your mind's eye, you will see.  The garment underneath, the loincloth, was much closer to man's skin than the robe which draped over his shoulders to his feet.

That is the point.  That the Jews were closer to God than the closest garment was to a man's skin.  Yet, they did not appreciate this fact and continually disobeyed God.  Therefore, God would punish them and let them rot in their sins.

to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty.
But they did not listen.

Because God had chosen the Jews to be a special people with a special relationship to Him.  But they refused.  Scripture says:

Exodus 19:4-6

King James Version (KJV)

⁴ Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
⁵ Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
⁶ And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

Responsorial Psalm Dt 32:18-19, 20, 21

Response. (see 18a) You have forgotten God who gave you birth.


You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you,
You forgot the God who gave you birth.
When the LORD saw this, he was filled with loathing
and anger toward his sons and daughters.

R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.

"I will hide my face from them," he said,
"and see what will then become of them.
What a fickle race they are,
sons with no loyalty in them!"

R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.

"Since they have provoked me with their 'no-god'
and angered me with their vain idols,
I will provoke them with a 'no-people';
with a foolish nation I will anger them."

R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.

The Psalm reiterates that God punished the Jews because they disobeyed Him and worshipped other gods.

Gospel Mt 13:31-35

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.

Jesus told the crowds another metaphorical story.

"The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.

The Church is like a mustard seed which is sown in the field.

It is the smallest of all the seeds,

A mustard seed is a very tiny seed.

yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'"

Yet when it is full grown, it is a large plant, a large bush where in the birds make their nests.

He spoke to them another parable.

Then Jesus told them another story with a message.

"The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast

The Church is like the yeast

that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened."

That a woman took and mixed with flour to produce a whole batch of bread.

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables,
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:


I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation
of the world.


Jesus spoke to the crowds in parable in order to fulfill what was prophecied about Him.  That He would teach the people with stories that contained hidden meanings.  Meanings which were not revealed since the world was created.

Sincerely,

De Maria